Necessity, Invention, and All That

Yay Star Anise!

     I still have not gone grocery shopping, not really. It is awful, I know, but where is the time? On the other hand, what will I eat? Well, whatever is left in the fridge. A few carrots, I love the hardiness - and long life - of carrots, green beans, and some Korean pork my mom packed for me to bring home. What to make of all this? 

Korean Pork looks menacing...

     Well, the easiest solution to this problem, if you know me, is not hard to figure out: some sort of - preferably Asian themed - soup. I'm sorry for the overload of these, but I can't help it! I must put food in my mouth in the shortest time possible, and soup is generally the way to go. So, what's new about this soup? Well, for one thing I don't think any self-respecting Asian of any kind would come up with it because it doesn't not belong to any one part of Asia. Star anise, coriander, oyster sauce, soy sauce, hoisin sauce might all kind of go together but then there's the Korean pork and the rice cakes. This soup owes allegiance to no country. 

Yes, I know it is sideways.

     Have you ever had rice cakes, or as my friends here seem to call them: rice lumps, before? They are disks of glutinous rice pounded together and you can cook them like noodles, and eat them the same way. I mean, in the sense that both provide carbs. To taste, rice cakes are flat chewy disks of goodness that soak up lots of delicious flavor when cooked in soup. At least each of my soups has something new! 

     So, what did my creation taste like? Well the best part about making recipes up is that you can just keep adding things to it until it tastes really good. My soup tasted delicious. The carrots were just right, not too mushy but not crunchy, the green beans made me feel healthier (I don't really like green beans...so I can't wax eloquent here, sorry), but the broth was just perfect. Actually, at first it was a little bit sweet and seemed to lack some tang. I kept looking around for something spicy to add to it, and then realized that the pre-marinated and pre-cooked (by my mother) Korean pork that I had would do just that. It made the broth perfect. You could add any protein you have lying around for this soup, or fish cakes, or I think the Chinese Roast Pork I once made would go really well. If your meat isn't spicy though, throw in a squirt of Sriracha to make the broth that perfect combo of spicy and sweet that I got. I love quick meals. 

Rice Cake Soup 

1 Star Anise

1/2 tsp Coriander Seeds 

2 cups Water 

1/2 cup Rice Cakes 

1 tbsp Soy Sauce 

1/2 tsp Oyster Sauce

1 tsp Hoisin Sauce 

3 mid-sized Carrots, Peeled and Sliced not too thin  

1/2 cup Green Beans, Sliced (or from frozen, like me) 

1/2 cup Protein of your Choice, Cut into Thin Slices or Small Chunks 

In a small frying pan, toast the star anise and coriander seeds for three minutes until they are fragrant. Add the water to a separate large saucepan at medium heat, and then add the spices to the water. Stir in the soy sauce, oyster sauce, and hoisin sauce as well. Add the rice cakes, carrots, and green beans. Allow the mixture to come to a boil, and then reduce the heat to a simmer until the rice cakes and carrots are soft (it took me about 10 minutes). Because my meat was very very thin and pre-cooked to perfection, I only added it to my soup after I had poured it into a bowl, which was enough to get it hot. If you meat is thicker and will need to be heated up more thoroughly, add it to your soup now while it is simmering in the pot, and then serve the soup after two minutes. Enjoy! 

Back in the Kitchen

So much is gone!

     I am back! I am cooking again! This is so exciting. Having my first home-cooked meals after a long weekend of eating out felt really good. I missed being in the kitchen - even if it was only three days. So, what did I make for my very first day back? Something ridiculously easy. Something using the only groceries I bought on my first grocery shopping trip after coming back from Boston: milk, bread, peanut butter and jam. Could any other groceries be more important? 

      I am going to have quite a collection of peanut butter and jelly recipes. But, what can I do when peanut butter and jelly is such a great combination? My friend BJG was actually talking about how he ate pb&j's at the farm he was working on over spring break and how amazing they were, and I started craving them so much (hence the grocery shopping). But I wanted something more, something special - something like this dish. So now, while staring confusedly at the pictures, you ask: What is this dish exactly? It is: Peanut butter and jelly bread pudding! 

All pretty in pink.

     I was hoping it would be utterly original. I mean, I knew it wouldn't be. But just for that little bit of hope, I didn't even bother to look it up online, and I just made up the recipe the way I wanted. Of course, my friends looked it up and killed my hope (even Food Network has made a pb & j bread pudding). Still, mine was better! It is better! (There's still a piece left. Or at least half a piece.)   

     Do you know why I know it is so good it must be one of the best? I used Strawberry preserves, so there are delicious bursts of strawberry throughout. I used enough peanut butter that it tastes like my kind of peanut butter sandwich - super peanut buttery. And, there is that extra something I never even thought of. I used the bread I had on hand, which was Arnold's wheat bread with "Ancient Grains" (yes, that's actually what it is called). First of all, this made the pudding taste Exactly like my peanut butter sandwiches because I never buy white bread anyway. Those Ancient Grains though, they were the best little surprise. Crunchy and slightly savory, they undercut the sweet denseness of the pudding in the best possible way. I do love good food. 

Peanut Butter and Jelly Bread Pudding 

4 slices Wheat Bread with Grains, slightly stale is best (but I used half fresh and half stale...)  

1 1/2 cup Milk 

3/4 cup Peanut Butter 

1/2 cup Strawberry Preserves (or your favorite jam) 

2 Eggs, Beaten  

2 tbsp Sugar 

     Pre-heat the oven to 325 degrees and butter a loaf pan. Then, crumble the four pieces of bread into a bowl so they are in about 1/2 inch pieces. In a separate medium bowl, mix the peanut butter, jam or preserves, milk, eggs, and sugar together. (I suggest an electric beater if you have one, it is hard to mix peanut butter into liquid with a spoon -- I ended up using my hands.) Dump the pieces of bread into the liquid and turn them so they are all soaking in liquid. Cover and let it rest for half an hour or until most of the liquid has soaked into the bread. Then, pour into the loaf pan and bake for 55 minutes to 1 hr (until the top looks firm and is not liquidy anymore). Let cool on a wire rack for ten minutes. Cut slices or scoop out portions, and eat! 

My Little Bit of Asia

     There are hidden treasures everywhere in the world. Allston, MA seems to be where a lot of them go to rest. The best bubble tea place I have ever found (PC Cafe), the best all-around Asian food court for every kind of Asian food you could ever crave (Super 88), and of course: the best bun place. Well, let me qualify, the best bun place within walking distance of my house, so I'm not trying to compete with all of you who are actually in Asia or NYC Chinatown or something. Still, even when I have not made it to Super 88 for a full meal or been hungry enough for a bubble tea, I have bought and eaten buns from Yi Soon Bakery every single time I have been home since I left for college.

Buns buns buns...and my suitcase in the background as I leave Boston :( 

     I hope all of you have gotten to try Asian buns at least once. And I say Asian because I have had delicious buns from Chinese, Taiwanese, Japanese, and Singaporean bakeries (so far). Yi Soon itself is a Taiwanese bakery. Let me give you a tour of what their buns look like: (Yes, this is how many I buy on an ordinary day - have I also mentioned that most of these cost a dollar each and never more than...two dollars?)

     First, there are sweet buns. There is the chocolate cream bun (which I didn't get to photograph because my mom and brother were devouring it while I slaved away with the camera - and by slaving away with the camera I mean eating this bun pictured above). There are buns filled with red bean pasta and taro, and then there is this bun which is (I believe) called the Angel Cheese Bun? It looks kind of menacing up there, but don't trust appearances. It has the most unbelievably soft bun outside dusted with a powdered sugar, and it is filled with a thick, sweet, cheese-y cream (like a Danish) and some raisins (which must be soaked in some kind of alcohol and sugar). Oh, it is so goooood.

I didn't unwrap it because I saved it to eat on my bus home..

     Then, then are things that are buns and yet not buns, like the cake bun! Yes, it is a cake inside a bun. Doesn't that sound like it would be very heavy? It is not. It is the lightest fluffiest Japanese sponge cake (or Japanese cheesecake - it is so good...try it) inside a thin layer of bun, with a layer of jam in between. Deliciousness.

     This is not a bun at all! The bakeries have all sorts of other sweets. Cream puffs and cookies and delicious little tarts and cakes and these baby pancakes filled with cream. The pancakes, I'm pretty sure, are also made with the Japanese cheesecake batter because they are unbelievably soft and fluffy, and the cream is not too sweet and just melts in your mouth. I think I ate three out of four?

More food for the road (yes, I left one behind for my brother...I'm not that greedy....)

     And, last but not least, is my favorite bun. Can you believe it, it is not sweet! Miracle of miracles. This is the Scallion Pork Bun. I have never ever been to Yi Soon without buying it, and I'm sure I bought it the first time I was ever there. It is a genius creation. A flat "bun" dough is coated with sesame seeds and covered with sweet mayonnaise and scallions and itsy bitsy pieces of carrot and then rolled up and each side is coated with pork floss. Pork floss is...well, its very very thin pieces of pork that you could mistake for some kind of candy, maybe. Does that seem weird to you? It is not weird at all, believe me. It is delicious goodness. So good that once my friend and I went to the lengths of cutting it in half with a menu (we didn't have a knife, or a fork...) in order to not mar this bun's beauty.

     So, that was my ode to Yi Soon, best bun place I have ever known. I hope one day you get to go there or at least to an equivalent bun place in your own home town. In case you are wondering, tomorrow I will have a recipe for you! Yes, be excited. But for now, happy eatings!

On Vacation

     I'm sorry everybody. I missed my first two days of blogging Friday and yesterday. I didn't cook, and I didn't post. I don't even plan to cook today. Are you ashamed of me? I couldn't help it. Sometimes, you need a vacation from everything you have to do. Even if those things are cooking and writing, and you love to do both. But, Friday was my last day at home, and yesterday I was on a bus till 10 at night. It's okay if I rest right?

Restful picture of fruit.

     Still, I am not leaving you with nothing to read. Today, I thought I would show you a little bit of what I was up to while at home and taking a break from the internet.

     Basically, what I have been up to is eating my mother's food. My mother is a very good cook, and the only reason my recipes make any sense. Last night, we had fried chicken and sweet potato fries and honeyed carrots. Yum. Sorry, I was not going to stop and take pictures. Today I had this chicken with the fresh pasta. She is also making paneer (Indian cottage cheese). Too bad it was time for me to leave the house, and I couldn't get any. But you can't have everything, right?

Milk and curdling and after some time delicious foods will appear!

     I have also been hanging out with my lovely brother, who you have seen rather a lot of recently. We have been playing Caram on our lovely caram board! Do you know what caram is? You flick a striker (that larger purple disk) across this board to hit the white and black pieces into one of the four nets in the corner of the board. Most fun.

     I think, I might take a day off of cooking tomorrow too. Don't look at me that way, I need to grocery shop in Philly before I can cook anything! And, I'm tired. But, don't worry, I have a lovely post all prepared to make you jealous of me for getting to be in Boston and eat delicious foods. I will be cooking and back in the swing of things soon, so don't give up on me. Thanks for still reading! 

Nutella Cookies Take Two

Cooookie

     Today, I started cooking very late. This means, I cooked between 10:45 pm and now. But, look at me, I am posting! Do you know why? Because I made cookies, and cookies take no time at all. What kind of cookies? Well, I did title this post "Nutella Cookies" after all. But, they are not any Nutella cookies: they are flourless Nutella Peanut Butter Cookies.

No more peanut butter!

     There are these flourless peanut butter cookies that I make quite often. They require only four ingredients: peanut butter, sugar, baking soda, and an egg. But, lo and behold, there was barely any peanut butter at home! So, using Nutella instead seemed the natural thing to do. We have two whole things of Nutella here, my family is obviously prepared for these late night cooking crises.

     The thing is that Nutella doesn't work exactly like peanut butter. It is less dense and - I think - not as buttery. So, my mom said to add flour to the cookies. But, I wanted to try something new. I wanted true flourless cookies! I went with my instincts. I did figure using the Nutella would make the cookies spread more, so I only put about seven on each cookie sheet. I also reduced the baking time (well, not in time to fix the first batch - CV, who I was skyping with, made me forget the importance of taking these cookies out early....but I got to talk to him, yay!).

Guess what it looks like????

     So, how did my cookies turn out? Well, I did overcook the first batch, sigh. They are light and crispy and still taste good, but even though I have eaten far too many -- to save other people from eating them of course --- I must say that they have gotten a little burnt around the edges. What do the second batch taste like? Peanut buttery chocolately hazelnut-y goodness. They are thin and chewy and like candy almost. Now, all I need is a glass of milk.

Nutella Peanut Butter Cookies 
Adapted from Honey and Jam 

1/4 cup Peanut Butter 
3/4 cup Nutella 
1/2 cup Brown Sugar
1/2 cup Granulated Sugar 
1 Egg 
1 tsp Baking Soda

Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees and butter (grease) two baking sheets. Using an electric beater, mix the peanut butter, Nutella, and sugar together. Then, beat in the egg and baking soda. Roll the batter into small (about half a tbsp) balls and place them on the baking sheet, about 7 per sheet. Bake for about 7-8 minutes, until they are light colored with darker streaks running through them. Cool on the sheet for 3 minutes and then cool them all the way on a wire rack. Enjoy with a glass of milk! 

A Little Spice

Yummy.     

     There are some memories of middle school and high school that do not fade. For me, a lot of those memories are of food (obviously), especially of the Asian foods I discovered at my friends' houses. To this day, I love going to see my Korean friend HJY and helping her put together some Korean stew - with rice cakes or fish cakes or mixed seafood or whatever she has around. No matter what she has on hand, whatever we make is always delicious and always such a refreshing change from the Indian food of every day.

     Korean food has also been on my mind because I went to H-Mart. Do you know H-Mart? It is a lovely lovely lovely Korean grocery store, I know there is one in Philly and the one around here is in Burlington (yes, you should go). It has a bakery with lovely buns (like one with a blueberry filling that tastes like blueberry gogurt in the best possible way, if you don't believe me ask my brother) and a section full of delicious Korean side dishes and appetizers (pan-fried whiting that tastes like spicy sticky candy? don't knock it till you've tried it) and a lot of samples! Samples are just the best.

     So, what did I (i.e. my parents) buy from H-Mart? Fish cakes. Tofu. Sriracha. Soy sauce. All the things you need to make a good spicy stew. So, that is just what I did. Last night, I made dinner for my brother and I, and it was good. Actually, it was far far far too spicy - I suffered through it, huffing and puffing, but I sweetened my brother's version quite a bit (honey always saves the day). So, I'm going to give you a modified recipe, one which makes just a little more sense for the ordinary person. Don't worry, it will not be bland.

     I just realized, saying I "suffered through it" makes it sound bad. Let me correct that notion, I would not eat anything half that spicy unless it tasted very very good. I love fish cake, you should try it if you have never had it. The kind I got is very thin, and I sliced it into strips. Once you cook it in liquid, it puffs up and is so soft and soaks up all the flavors around it. Try it! The fish cake, tofu, and udon really soaked up the sweet and tangy flavors of the soup without becoming too spicy, and I just couldn't stop slurping them up even with my lips and tongue on fire. I want more.

Korean Stew with Fish Cake 

3 pieces Fish Cake, sliced lengthwise into 1 inch strips  
1/2 box Tofu, cut into 1 inch cubes  
1/2 cup Shredded Carrots 
1 tbsp Vegetable Oil 
1 Mid-Sized Onion, Minced 

1 tbsp Soy Sauce 

1 tbsp Fish Sauce 

1 1/2 tbsp Sriracha 
3 cups Water 

In a large saucepan or wok, heat up the vegetable oil at medium heat. Add the onions and sauté them until they are translucent. Add the soy sauce and fish sauce and sriracha, and stir everything together. Then, add all the water and the fish cakes. Allow the fish cakes to puff up a little, then add the tofu and the carrots. Cover the pot and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring once in a while, until the fish cakes are much more puffed up and soft and the tofu is soft as well. It is now ready to serve. I served it with a packet of frozen udon noodles I just cooked in the microwave, you could also serve it over rice.

Note:

If you want things much less spicy, add just half a tablespoon of sriracha and you can always add more when you serve it into bowls! 

An Invasion Part II

     So, I have a confession to make. Today's dish is not all mine, it is mainly my mother's. It's just, I did do some of it (the topping)...and it is too good an opportunity to pass up. An opportunity to talk about something oh so wonderful and new and exciting that I have never done before: fresh pasta.

Look at all the pretty pasta!

     Is fresh pasta hard to make? Not really. It doesn't take a lot of ingredients, just flour and eggs. It does also take a pasta machine, which I'm sure all of you don't have. You could roll the pasta out by hand. Yes, it would probably be frustrating and take a long time. But I think I might do it back at school one day, probably a day right before a midterm when I just cannot study....you will just have to wait and watch.

     The mushroom topping was actually a spur of the moment thing. The vegetarians in the house (my father) obviously could not enjoy the boeuf bourguignon I made earlier, so I was thinking of making a mushroom bourguignon. But, with my mother's inspired pasta making, we came up with something new! No mushrooms in bourguignon, but a mushroom sauce / topping, whatever you would like to call it, for the pasta. Something light and fresh and summery - mushrooms and tomatoes and parsley.  

     Even with its vegetarianism, the pasta was much appreciated by my brother and his friends who came over for dinner yesterday. In all its mushroom and tomato glory, they gobbled it up. Hurrah! But how could anyone not appreciate fresh pasta? Soft and silky and not overpowered by the slightly sweet tomatoes and soft mushrooms and bright parsley. Light and so easy to eat far too much of, I do love remembering a good meal. 

Pasta 

5 Eggs 

6 cups Flour 

Pour the flour into a large bowl so it is a large mound, and make a well in it. Pour in the eggs, and stir them together thoroughly (you can also mix them together in a food processor). Flour a surface and turn the dough onto it. Knead it a couple of times (not too much), and then put it back in the bowl and let it rest for about an hour. Once it has rested, divide the dough in two, roll it a little flat and start running it through the pasta roller. Run it through until you get a sheet of pasta about 1/6 of an inch thick. You may want to sprinkle it with flour to keep the sheet from sticking to itself. Once all the dough has been rolled out, cut it into thin strips (about 1/4 in thick). Sprinkle flour on the strips so they don't stick together either, and let them rest. Meanwhile, boil a large pot of water with a spoon of salt, and add the pasta. Let it cook for about 8 minutes, until it is al dente, and you are done! Drain the pasta, and then top it with the sauce. 

Mushroom Topping 

1/2 tbsp Olive Oil 

1 cup Mushrooms, diced 

1 Garlic Clove, minced 

2 tbsp Red Wine 

1 cup Parsley, chopped 

1 Mid-Sized Tomato, Diced 

1/2 tsp Salt 

1/2 tsp Pepper 

Heat the olive oil in a frying pan at medium heat. Add the garlic and the mushrooms and allow them to cook down until they are soft and browned. Add the red wine and stir it in, allowing the mushrooms to cook for a little longer. Then, add the parsley and tomatoes. Stir them in, until the tomatoes are softer and the parsley is wilted. Sprinkle on the salt and pepper to taste and stir them in.

Put the pasta in a large serving bowl and add the topping. Toss them together, and you are ready to serve!